Monday, December 28, 2015

According to the Times of Israel (getting their information from Israel Radio), one of the suspects in the Dawabshe murders has been released. They didn't reveal the name.

An article in the Jewish Press also discusses the release of this suspect, giving the perspective of Honenu, the right-wing organization that defends civilians and soldiers accused of offenses against Palestinians.

The Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court on Monday released one of the suspects in the so-called "Jewish terror" case to house arrest, after all the more serious suspicions against him proved baseless.

Police said they planned to indict him for assaulting Palestinians.

The suspect, 18, who frequented the Baladim outpost near the West Bank's Kochav Hashachar settlement, was arrested a month ago by the Shin Bet and was blocked from meeting with his lawyer for 18 days.

He was questioned on suspicion he was involved in the Duma arson attack that killed three members of the Dawabsheh family, but after a month of interrogation the case against him fizzled out.

However, during questioning it emerged that the youth had been involved in a scuffle two years ago in which he and others beat a Palestinian man near the outpost.

Police submitted an intent-to-prosecute declaration and asked to extend his remand until he was charged, but the court rejected the request and sent the youth to house arrest. Police have appealed his release to the district court.

Two intent-to-prosecute declarations were meant to be issued Monday against the main Duma suspect and another suspect, but they were not submitted in the end and their remands were extended for two days. Prosecutors were still debating whether the second suspect can be charged with murder for his small role in the incident.

Further update:
According to Ran Dahan on his Facebook page, Hanoch Ganiram has been released to 10 days of house arrest. He did not confess to the arson and murder in Duma. Odess and Amiram are being held in remand until Wednesday.

I don't know who Ran Dahan is and whether his information is reliable, but it does fit the other articles that I've read.

Sunday, December 27, 2015

Electronic Intifada is not my favorite source, but they have reported the names of the two young men who have been arrested for the murders of the Dawabshe family - Hanoch Ganiram (who is over 18) and Elisha Odess (age 16). The Forward confirms that one of those arrested is Odess.

Elisha Odess

The Facebook page for כולנו עם עצורי ציון announced on November 30 that Ganiram and Odess had been arrested.

Translation:

"Take counsel together, and it shall be brought to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand."

Hey gang!! Elisha Odess and Hanoch Ganiram have been arrested for arson in Duma! The Zionists are trying to use all their power to break them! We are trying to organise a 24-hour retreat for their success.

The Times of Israel has posted a list from the Facebook page כולנו עם עצורי ציון ("We are all with the prisoners of Zion"), which shows the names of many men who have been arrested. Some are being held in administrative detention, some have been arrested and are being charged, some are being interrogated by the Shin Bet, and some are in prison. The first names and names of their mothers are given, because this is a list of people that they think we should pray for.

The two men named by Electronic Intifada are among the list of seven men being interrogated by the Shin Bet - חנוך בן חסיה ענת and אלישע חיים בן נעמה לאה. Hanoch Ganiram is the grandson of Yitzhak Ganiram, who was involved in the Jewish Underground in the early 1980s. Richard Silverstein of Tikkun Olam (another source I would usually find unreliable) is reporting that two other people have also been arrested, one of whom is Amiram Benoliel and the other is Israel Keller (Ynet reported that Nir Keller, the father of Israel Keller, wrote a post on his Facebook page condemning President Ruvi Rivlin as the "Fuhrer." Ynet doesn't name him, but Richard Edmondson does). It seems likely that they correspond to עמירם בן נורית and ישראל דב בער בן ברכה הילה. Silverstein has also reported that another person has been arrested in connection with this case - Tzur Israel Bengusi, whose name would correspond to צור ישראל בן דליה in the list below. It's only because the names that Silverstein is giving correspond to the names in this list that I'm using him as a source.

We will know for certain once they've been indicted, which will be soon, I hope. This investigation has dragged on for months.

Saturday, December 26, 2015

On December 23, part of a video was shown on Israeli television of a recent wedding between two well-known members of the far right in Israel. The video showed dancing and singing. The songs were songs of revenge and they were dancing with weapons in their hands: knives, automatic weapons, and Molotov cocktails. They were part of the same group of hilltop youth from whom came those accused of murdering the Dawabshe family. The same day, there was a demonstration in Tel Aviv by other hilltop youth against the arrest and questioning of the suspects in the murders.

But apparently this was not the only time songs of revenge were sung at a wedding. Below is a clip from Israel television, from 2013, showing a very similar wedding scene. The bride is the daughter of Benzi Gopstein, the leader of Lehava, the fascist group that protests at weddings between Arabs and Jews and also hangs out in the center of Jerusalem at night in order to beat up Arabs. The clip is in Hebrew with English subtitles. It's very disturbing.

And here is another video about Bentzi Gopstein and Lehava, demonstrating more of their racist behavior.

Dozens of guests at a far-right wedding, where the murders of the Dawabshe family were celebrated, as seen in a now-infamous clip, will be summoned by police for questioning next week.

[Clip from the wedding, from Ynet:]

Channel 2 on Thursday night featured new footage of the event, which showed that Bentzi Gopstein, leader of the far-right Lehava organization, and Itamar Ben Gvir, the attorney for the Duma firebombing suspects, were present at the wedding. The new video featured more dancing with rifles, knives, and firebombs, as well as images of revelers torching and stabbing a photo of 18-month-old Ali Dawabshe, who was burned to death in the July 31 attack in the West Bank village of Duma....

The groom, who is reportedly friends with the Jewish extremists detained in connection with the firebombing attack, said Thursday he was unaware of the celebrations of the murder at his wedding. “I didn’t even see it. At my wedding I was in the clouds, not on the ground at all,” Yakir Ashbal told Channel 10.

He called the footage “shocking,” but insisted that “there were about 600 people at my wedding, and this wasn’t something I agreed to. There were a million people. I don’t control what happens at my wedding. I’m just the groom; I didn’t even pay for the photographer or the singer.”

Ashbal’s father, too, joined the chorus of denunciation Thursday, insisting he would have stopped the revelers calling for “vengeance” if he had seen them.

According to Channel 10, Ashbal belongs to a group calling itself “The Rebellion,” which advocates the toppling of the Israeli state and its replacement by a Jewish monarchy. The group also reportedly supports expelling non-Jews from the land.

Both bride and groom have previously been investigated by the Shin Bet.

The video drew widespread condemnation from across the political spectrum, though some right-wing lawmakers accused security officials of leaking the clip to demonize Jewish extremists being investigated over the murder of three members of a Palestinian family in July....

The attack in Duma killed three members of a Palestinian family. Only one member of the Dawabsha family — Ahmed, now 5 — survived the attack, and remains hospitalized in Israel. The 18-month-old baby Ali was killed on the night of the attack, while parents Riham and Saad succumbed to their injuries in the succeeding weeks.

An unspecified number of Jewish suspects have been arrested in connection with the attack, which is being investigated as an act of terrorism. Details of the investigation, and the identity of the suspects, have been withheld from publication by a court-imposed gag order.

The crowd in the video chants the lyrics of a song which include a verse from Judges 16:28, quoting Samson, blinded in Gaza, saying “let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes” — but changing the word Philistines to Palestine.....

According to Haaretz reporter Chaim Levinson on Twitter, the bride was arrested in the past for carrying out an attack against Palestinians, along with the wife of one of the main suspects in the Duma case. She received 350 hours of community service for the crime.

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I teach at Ithaca College, do research on early Jewish magic and mysticism, visit Israel frequently, and enjoy the lovely Finger Lakes region of New York State. This is my personal blog, and the statements in it reflect only my own views, not those of Ithaca College.